CHICAGO (Reuters) - A large stretch of the north central United States is at risk of moderate to major flooding this spring given saturated ground and a heavy snowpack, the National Weather Service said on Friday.
"Excessive precipitation, mainly in the form of snow, coupled with continuously frigid temperatures has yielded a thick snowpack in much of the upper Midwest. We expect significant flooding when this snow begins to melt," Lynn Maximuk, central region director of the National Weather Service, said in a statement.
The area at risk stretches from Montana to western Wisconsin, including North Dakota's Red River Valley and the upper Mississippi River region.
Both areas are big corn, spring wheat and soybean production areas and any flooding could potentially delay spring planting.
Under the current forecast, the Mississippi River is at risk for moderate to major flooding from St. Paul, Minnesota, all the way to St. Louis.
Forecasters also predicted for the third consecutive year moderate to major flooding along the Red River of the North, which forms the state line between eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota.
The Red River reached a record crest of nearly 41 feet in Fargo in 2009 and at 54.35 feet in 1997 further downstream at Grand Forks. There is a better than 50 percent chance that the river crests above 51 feet in the Grand Forks area, the National Weather Service said.
"Forecasts for much of the region continue to call for persistent below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation for February, with an expectation for the snow pack to grow," NWS said.
(Reporting by Christine Stebbins and David Bailey)
